The present invention relates to a method for controlling the transmission power in a system for transmitting data via a telephone line by using a digital subscriber line.
Telephone line connections have to fulfil certain requirements to achieve good connection quality. Standardisation organisations, such as The International Telecommunication Union, ITU-T, has constructed recommendations that specify these requirements. Limit values for a number of important transmission parameters together define the quality requirements of a connection between two subscribers.
Basically, it is question about the degree of distortion allowed in the information sent from a sender to a receiver. There are different techniques that can be used to measure how the information is changed. Different transmission parameters can be used as measure values for these measurements.
Modulation is a technique used for both analogue and digital information in which the information is sent as changes in a carrier signal. The unit that performs the modulation and the corresponding demodulation is called a modem, consisting of a modulator and a demodulator. With modulation it is possible to send digital binary information on analogue carrier, such as radio waves. In digital information transmission, wherein the information is sent as a sequence of xe2x80x9c0sxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9c1sxe2x80x9d on a carrier wave, the bandwidth, i.e. the transmission capacity, is given in bits per second, bit/s. The bit rate can be increased on bandwidth limited connections, such as telephone cables and limited frequency bands at radio communication to have as many bits per Hertz as possible in the signal. Examples of such modulation methods are Frequency Shift Keying, FSK or Phase Shift Keying, PSK and Amplitude Shift Keying, ASK and combinations of these. The combination of e.g. PSK and ASK is called Quadrature Amplitude Modulation, QAM and enables more bits per second than any single method. The use of QAM requires a strong signal so that the single bits can be distinguished in demodulation.
The most common quality parameter in digital networks is the bit error rate, BER. The number of erroneously received bits at the receiver is a measure of the quality of the connection, expressed as the average portion of erroneously bits received of the total number of transmitted bits. BER is the number of erroneous bits in one time slot divided by the number of checked bits. In the practice, the bit errors appear in xe2x80x9cburstsxe2x80x9d, which means that the time aspect has to be taken into consideration in the definition of the quality of the connection. A given number of bit errors can be tolerated as methods for automatic correction of bit errors exist. These methods can handle bit errors to a certain extent.
Noise in the data connections is the most frequent reason for bit errors. No systems can today be made completely without noise, but there are limits for how much noise can be tolerated. The level of noise itself is not so important, instead the ratio between the level of the transmitted signal and the noise, The Signal Noise Ratio (S/N), is decisive for the audibility.
Cross-talk appearing in cable pairs working in opposite directions is another reason for bit errors. Both near-end cross-talk (NEXT) and far-end cross-talk (FEXT) take place in digital systems; NEXT between cable pairs working in opposite directions and FEXT between cable pairs working in the same transmission direction. NEXT is the bigger problem, since it is caused by an outgoing signal that is strong compared to the incoming one in the other cable pair.
Different transmission media are used for transmission, of which the most important are the copper cable (such as the pair cable or the coaxial cable), optical fibers and radio waves.
New transmission systems for copper access have been developed for allocation of different frequency ranges to telephony and data communication, which enables simultaneous telephony and data traffic over the same copper pair. This family of systems is called xDSL, where DSL stands for digital subscriber line.
The acronym xDSL refers collectively to a number of variations of the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology, which aims at utilizing the information transmission capability of ordinary copper wires to the ultimate possible extent. Known variations that go under the umbrella definition of xDSL are at the priority date of this patent application ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), CDSL (Consumer DSL, registered trademark of Rockwell International Corp.), G. Lite (also known as DSL Lite, splitterless ADSL, and Universal ADSL; officially ITU-T standard G-992.2), HDSL (High bit-rate DSL), RADSL (Rate-Adaptive DSL), SDSL (Symmetric DSL), VDSL (Very high data rate DSL) and even to some extent UDSL (Unidirectional DSL), which is only a proposal, and IDSL (ISDN DSL), which is actually closer to ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network).
DSL standards sets given limits for the transmission power, which are followed in the implementation level. In general, digital subscriber line system implementations transmit a signal at a predetermined fixed transmission power level, when transmitting data through a telephone line. Preferably, the transmission power level should be sufficiently high so as to maintain a sufficiently high S/N (signal to noise) ratio. The data transfer rate can be kept high and the signal can be kept strong only with a high S/N ratio. On the other hand, the transmission power level should be sufficiently low so as to reduce any influence on the information due to cross talk between the subscriber lines, wherein the cross talk is proportional to the transmission power level.
The problem with having a fixed transmission power is that the transmission power is unnecessary high from time to time. In reality, the lines of the subscribers may have different conditions of noise. Nevertheless, the transmission power level has been fixed so that in some cases, the fixed transmission power level may be lower or higher than the what would be necessary in relation to the prevailing circumstances. As a result, the system may be influenced by cross talk. In order to reduce the negative effects of the cross talk, the data transfer rate must be lowered. This results in a decrease of the transmission capability and an unnecessary waste of transmission power.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,427 there is presented a transmission power control method in an asymmetric digital subscriber line system. In this solution, the asymmetric digital subscriber line system compares a measured noise margin with a reference value, changes a transmission power level of a transmission signal, step by step, beginning from an initial level and sets the transmission power level to a minimum level as long as the measured noise margin is greater than the reference value.
The object of this invention is to control the transmission power in a more flexible and accurate way.
The method of the invention controls the transmission power for a session in a system for transmitting data via a telephone line by using a digital subscriber line between a user terminal and a central unit. The transmission power is increased or decreased between given limit values so that the power is kept as low as possible, while still providing sufficient transmission quality. The quality criteria according to which the transmission power is controlled consists of the value of the Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N), and the number of bit errors BER within a given time interval.
The advantageous ways of carrying out the invention appears in the following description.
The transmission power is stepwise increased or decreased in accordance with the values of transmission quality and it is controlled independently in the upstream and downstream links but in the most preferable embodiment taking into account the overall cross-effects of these links.
The transmission power is controlled with an algorithm with the aim of adjusting the transmission power to the prevailing circumstances of S/N and BER in a binder of several copper lines.
The session is initiated with an initial value for the transmission power, and the number of bit errors is then calculated within a given time interval. The transmission power is decreased or increased to keep the BER within a range of a minimum value for BER, BERMin and a maximum value for BER, BERMax, while maintaining S/N above a given reference value and the transmission power within given limit values, Pmin-Pmax.
The initial transmission power is the maximum power, the minimum power or some value therebetween. It can e.g. be an average power calculated on the basis of foregoing sessions.
The power is controlled with an algorithm with the aim of adjusting the transmission power to the prevailing circumstances of line qualities in the copper line binder, which depend on cross talk and the signal to noise ratio, S/N, within the binder. The transmission power is decreased or increased within given standardised values. The algorithm always tries to keep the transmission power as low as possible.
The transmission is initiated with an initial value for the power, which necessarily is not the maximum power. The transmission power is controlled between a given minimum value, below which the power is not allowed to be decreased, and a maximum value, above which the power must not be increased. The system calculates the number of errors within a given time interval. A given number of errors is allowed and therefor there is defined a minimum allowed value for errors, BERMin and the highest possible number for errors tolerated, BERMax. By decreasing or increasing the transmission power, the algorithm strives to keep the number of bit errors, BER, within these values. Also the S/N has been given a reference value below which S/N must not be decreased as a result of decreasing of the transmission power.
If the number of errors is smaller than BERMin and S/N is bigger than the reference value, the transmission power is decreased step by step keeping the following formula true:
1. Compute BER;
2. If (BER less than BERMin AND S/R greater than S/RRef) then decrease transmission power one step (e.g. 0.4 dB);
3. Go to 1.
S/N can have a value below the reference value, but the algorithm does not decrease the transmission power if S/N is below the reference value. S/N can be lower than the reference value even if the transmission power is at maximum, due to a poor line quality.
If the number of errors is bigger than BERMax, the transmission power is changed, i.e. increased or decreased. If the number of errors is within the error range, the transmission power is not changed.
If for example the transmission power is increased as a consequence of that BER is higher than BERMax, the BER is followed up to see if the increasing of the transmission power had the desired effect of lowering the BER. If cross-talk, that has a tendency of increasing with increasing transmission power, exist in the system at the time of increasing the transmission power, the result might be that the BER is further increased. Therefore, the algorithm, in the most preferred embodiment of the invention, follows-up the value of BER after the increase of the transmission power, and if BER increased, the transmission power is decreased one step back again.
The increasing or decreasing of the transmission power preferably takes place stepwise. The minimum step can e.g. be 0.4 dBm/Hz. The step sizes that can be used are 0.4 dBm/Hz*n, where n=1, 2, 3, etc. The increasing and decreasing of the transmission power takes place independently in the upstream and downstream connections.
In the following the invention is described by means of a preferred embodiment and an example. The intention is not to limit the invention to those examples. Even if the invention is here described in connection with a VDSL system, the invention can equally well be used in other xDSL systems too.